Gems to Adorn Celebrities And Elephants

From his stores of sapphires, yellow diamonds, emeralds and rubies, Alexandre Reza created pieces for Sammy Davis Jr. and the Sultan of Brunei. He once turned two giant emeralds into wheel-shaped earrings for a maharajah's elephant.

Mr. Reza is widely recognized as the world's most obsessive collector of colored gems. Beginning Friday in New York, clients of Sotheby's can ogle some of them in an exhibit that will travel on to Doha, London and Beijing. The display includes a brooch with a 134-carat Ceylon sapphire, mounted...